March and my last month at work had arrived so with closing a few work things down plus some other planned activities it was another busy month.
To watch the Six Nations Rugby Super Saturday games it was off to Amsterdam, that well known Rugby City. Obvious, right? 🙂
We (seven of us) arrived early Friday evening on the train having departed St Pancreas by Eurostar. After a circuitous walk we found our berth (a dutch barge) for the next three nights.
Fortunately the night was young so we set off to suss out the canals and bars to find the best location to watch the rugger.
We tested a few candidates but, as is so often the case, a very hospitable Irish bar, the Temple Bar Irish Pub, won!
At night Amsterdam looks great and with the labyrinth of canal streets it’s easy to get lost 🙂
The following day was Super Saturday match day so Cheesy (being ex Navy and thinking we had the barge to ourselves) sounded the ‘wake up’ pipe, very loudly much to the “amusement” of the other guests. Very funny!
After breakfast we headed into the city, had a look around in daylight and then homed in on Temple Irish Bar for the rugby. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together 🙂
Sunday morning was a slow start but a chance to have a more serious look around Amsterdam to see some of its culture. I know what you are thinking but you are wrong !
Lots of wonky houses, straight canals, “colourful” bars, cafe’s and people, OOOOHHHH and somebody doesn’t like Mr President.
On Monday morning I headed off a bit early to get a flight back to Stansted in time for mum, sister, brother in law, my boys and some friends arriving ahead of the retirement “do”. It was held on the 34th floor of the BT Tower (T34) with amazing views as the sun went down. As i’ve mentioned in a previous post we had a fabulous evening with family, friends, colleagues and customers. Thanks again to BT for making that possible.
Mum stayed up for a few days as we’d got tickets for the Classical Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall. What a fantastic venue (a first for us) and the performance of all the ‘last night of the proms’ tunes plus more was top notch. They run them in March and November every year and are well worth going to if you get the chance. There’s also a very nice Italian Bistro called Verdi which is perfect for a yummy pre-performance lunch or dinner; so we did 🙂
The day after we headed to Cheltenham in the van for a wedding. Getting dressed in our finery in the van was challenging but doable and what a lovely wedding it was amidst all the Brexit nonsense that you couldn’t escape.
The following day we drove to the Cheddar Gorge area via Birdlip which has cracking views back across the vale to the Malvern Hills.
At Cheddar, we pitched up at the lovely Petruth Paddocks site and erected our new Royal Blockley drive-away awning… for the first time….. in quite a stiff breeze…challenging 🙂
Not sure its quite right but it stayed up.. …result!
In the evening we met up with Sally’s brother and sister in law (Paul and Helen) for a meal at the Bath Arms, a local pub in Cheddar.
Great food, wine and beer and good fun all round. Great to see them both.
Then it was back to the London and all its Brexit madness via the Cheddar Gorge road. We will definitely go back there when the caves are open but what a dramatic road to drive with the steep sided cliffs and windy roads.
The 29th March was my last day at work and we marked it with a few drinks in and around Paddington followed by a lovely fillet steak meal in the flat accompanied by a very special bottle of 2003 Saint Julien, Chateau Beychevelle that I’d been saving. This seemed like the right occasion and it didn’t disappoint!
Over the weekend we headed down to Kent to see Mick and Sandra for a gin distillery tour and tasting at a beautifully renovated old pump house in Chatham docks.
We hadn’t appreciated it but it turns out that the gin business is just a short term money making enterprise while whisky matures for a minimum of 3 years and a day in burnt oak barrels so that it can officially be called whisky.
Gin by contrast takes next to no time to distill, bottle and sell so it makes sense to get some income while the main event comes into season. The barrels pictured in the corner were in a bonded store and were the first batch to come out of this distillery, due to be sampled for the first time in about a month from us being there – everyone was very excited about that!… must check how it turned out.
All that said, the very agreeable gin that we tasted (a few times) was made with 100% local produce and distilled in a patented still called Janet. Naturally we bought a bottle 🙂
After the tour we explored Rochester for a while with its interesting history, castle and Cathedral.
In the evening we all met up with Andy and Nicky for a few beers and a ruby – yum!
Very yummy Ruby !
It’s official… I was now retired!
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